Administration 'Silent Raids' Lead to Firings, Not Deportations

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Fox News:


Administration's 'Silent Raids' Lead to Firings, Not Deportations
Published July 10, 2010 | FoxNews.com

The Obama administration’s new approach to dealing with companies that hire illegal immigrants results in firings, not deportations, the New York Times reported Friday.

Instead of immigration sweeps at factories and farms which used to lead to illegal workers being shipped out of the country, the administration’s new policy—government conducted audits labeled “silent raids” by employers—usually only result in the workers losing their jobs, the Times said.

The Times article comes just over a week after the president delivered his highly anticipated speech on immigration reform, which was criticized on both ends of the political spectrum.

In these audits, federal agents examine company records to find illegal workers on the payroll, forcing “businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant… not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid,” the Times said. This makes it more difficult for companies to hire undocumented workers to fill these positions in the future, the article explained.

These audits reach more companies than the Bush raids, employers said. This year alone, Immigration and Customs Enforcement have facilitated the firing of thousands of immigrants and “levied a record $3 million in civil fines,” the Times reported.


This current policy is a contrast to the Bush-era work-site roundups where undocumented employees were deported en masse. It also represents the current government opinion that treating the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants as criminals would overwhelm the system.

This ideology stands at the very center of the current battle between the federal government and the state of Arizona’s new immigration law. Arizona’s law makes not carrying the appropriate immigration documents a criminal offense and gives authorities the power to detain anyone they think is an illegal immigrant. Several lawsuits—including one filed against the state by the federal government— are now pending.